I see the continuing theme here is still "cost". If so, how do we explain that gun dealers cant keep Kimber's in stock and they are 6 to 8 months in backorder? I don't think they have a gun under $1000. Or how about that my local gun dealer can't keep the metal frame Sig Sauer's in stock but the polymer frame guns sit on his shelf for months. I have been trying to buy a S&W "E" series for a year now but they continue to sell the same day they hit the shelves. Try to find a Hi-Power for sale. How do we explain the S&W model 41 .22 semi auto? This thing is $1200 and is supposed to be sold out and on backorder. This has been going on long before the crazy "gun run" that we just experienced in the last 4 months.

It is also being brought up that you can't justify re-tooling for very small production runs. Maybe true, but over the years S&W has always offered their "Performance Center" guns that were what I would call a "very small production run" and those guns definitely required re-tooling to produce their slides and frames.